[Issue 8909] New: is{File, Dir, SymLink} mix return error code and exception

[d-bugmail at puremagic.com]

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=8909

           Summary: is{File,Dir,SymLink} mix return error code and
                    exception
           Product: D
           Version: D2
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Phobos
        AssignedTo: nobody at puremagic.com
        ReportedBy: dimitri.sabadie at gmail.com


--- Comment #0 from Dimitri Sabadie <dimitri.sabadie at gmail.com> 2012-10-29 07:46:15 PDT ---
I think a call to .isFile / .isDir / .isSymLink shouln’t throw any exception.
The problem here is that to use, for instance, isFile, we have to use it this
way :

try {
    "path/to/file".isFile;
} catch (const Exception e) {
    /* treat the error here */
}

Such a fonction is excepted — according to its name — to be used by checking
it’s returned value :

if (!"path/to/file".isFile) {
    /* treat the error here */
}

The problem is that the current interface mix both those methods, so the above
codes is just fucking weird for two reasons :

1. if "path/to/file" is not a file, the if statement won’t even be executed
because of the thrown exception, so an if statement is not good here
2. we don’t catch the exception, so we can’t treat the error. An if we do, we
don’t rely on the returned value.

I propose to remove the exception throw. I’d really love to write this patch,
I’m motivated to contribute to D and all projects around it.

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